AXIS AND ALLIES 1914 OPTIONAL RULE: RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Using this rule, you may attempt to develop improved military technology. If you decide to use Research & Development, it becomes the new phase 1 of the turn sequence, bumping the other phases up a number. Germany begins with Advanced Rail Network and Increased Mobilization. Austria-Hungary begins with Advanced Rail Network. Russia begins with Advanced Rail Network and Increased Mobilization. Britain begins with War Bonds. France begins with Advanced Rail Network and Increased Mobilization. Research and Development Sequence 1. Buy research dice 2. Roll research dice 3. Roll breakthrough die 4. Mark developments Step 1: Buy Research Dice Each research die costs 3 IPCs to develop a technology on the tier 1 chart and 6 IPCs to develop a technology on the tier 2 chart. Once a nation has acquired FOUR tier 1 technologies, the cost per die for tier 1 and tier 2 technologies becomes 3 IPCs for that nation. Buy as many as you wish, including none. Every turn, Germany, France, and Britain receives one free 3 IPC valued research die, which represents automatic ongoing war research. Step 2: Roll Research Dice Roll each of your purchased research dice. You must roll all tier 1 research dice before rolling any tier 2 research dice. Success: If you roll at least one 6, you have successfully made a technological breakthrough. Continue to step 3. Failure: If you don t roll a 6, your research has failed. Step 3: Roll Breakthrough Die If your research was successful, reference the appropriate tier(s) of the research chart (below) and roll a single die on each tier to see which technological advance you get. Re-roll the die if you roll a technology you already have. You may receive a maximum of 1 technology per tier each turn, which is a total of two technologies possible, however, if you rolled multiple 6 results on the same tier in step 2, then roll a die for each 6 and choose which technology you want between those results (re-roll the duplicate die
rolls). Essentially multiple successful rolls in Step 2 allows you more choices of which technology to acquire. Example: In Step 2, three tier 1 research dice were rolled, resulting in two 6 rolls. Now in Step 3, two dice are rolled for a breakthrough, resulting in a 2 and a 2. Both rolls are the same so one die is rolled again resulting in a 5. This nation now chooses between the tier 1 chart's #2 and #5 technologies. If this nation had either one of those technologies already, then it would re-roll the breakthrough dice until something it did not already have is rolled. Step 4. Mark Developments If your research was successful, place one of your national control markers inside the appropriate advancement box on the Research and Development chart. Your development becomes effective immediately. Any number of powers may develop the same technology, but powers can t share their technology. TIER 1 CHART 1. Artillery Counter-battery Fire. Your artillery is now effective at destroying enemy guns by counter-battery fire, on attack or defense. In a round of combat, for every 3 hits scored by artillery 1 enemy artillery unit must also be removed as a bonus casualty. These bonus casualties are removed from the board immediately, but their die remains on the battle board for that round of combat (they still get to roll). 2. Poison Gas. You can now utilize poison gas in attacks to suppress enemy infantry. Once per turn you may choose a single attack to employ poison gas. Once utilized, the attacker rolls a die before combat and that many defending infantry many not roll for defense in that round of combat. 3. Advanced Rail Network. You can now strategically re-deploy a portion of your land units and/or fighters. During the Movement Phase, you may move up to 3 groups of any number of your units as long as each group begins and ends its movement together. Each group of units: must begin their movement in a non-contested territory that you control may move through any number of non-contested territories belonging to either your nation, or an ally's nation who also has this technology must end their movement in either a non-contested territory that you own or that an ally who also has this technology owns, OR in a contested territory that already contains some of your units, as long as the territory did not become contested during this Movement Phase 4. Increased Mobilization. You now have the ability to mobilize additional reserves, colonial forces, and minor allied armies. For every 3 infantry purchased during a Purchase Phase, 1 extra infantry is received for free. These free infantry units can be placed in the Mobilize New Units Phase, in a contested or non-contested territory as follows: in this nation's capitol (this represents additional reserves mobilized)
in this nation's currently controlled originally owned territories in Africa (this represents colonial troops such as Askaris and European colonists) in an unconquered minor ally territory that is controlled by this nation and has been mobilized (this represents forces raised by minor national armies) 5. War Bonds. You now earn supplemental income to help with the war effort. During each Collect Income Phase, roll a die and collect that many additional IPCs. 6. Advanced Trench Network. Your infantry are now much better protected on the defense. When defending, as long as at least one defending unit survived the round (from any nationality), then after each round of combat roll a die for each of your infantry casualties taken; on a roll of "1" or "2" that casualty is ignored - saved by the fortifications - and is not removed. If multiple nations with this technology are defending, then the roll is made by each defending nation involved that suffered infantry casualties (they roll for their own casualties only). TIER 2 CHART 1. Tanks. You are now able to produce tanks. This technology directly determines when tanks can be purchased and as such, this overrides the rule which allows all tanks to be purchased on turn 4. 2. Late War Fighters. Your fighters are now better at gaining air superiority and can move further. When battling for air superiority, your attacking or defending fighters now hit an enemy fighter on a roll of 3 or less. Also, your fighters can now move up to 3 spaces instead of 2. 3. Rolling Barrage. Your artillery is now much more effective at supporting offensives. When attacking, roll two dice for each artillery unit and select the best result. Also when attacking, each of your artillery units now promotes 2 infantry or 2 tanks (or 1 of each) instead of just 1. Note: When selecting the best of two rolls, you may roll all artillery dice at once and just select the best number of rolls of dice that equal the number of artillery units attacking (example: for three artillery units roll six dice at once and choose the best three results). Also note that artillery becomes particularly devastating when this technology is combined with the Artillery Counter-Battery Fire technology. 4. Late War Infantry. Your infantry are less vulnerable to some enemy technological advances. When defending, your infantry are now immune to the effects of Poison Gas, and when attacking, the defender cannot utilize the Advanced Trench Network technology. In other words, this technology cancels out Poison Gas and Advanced Trench Network technologies. If multiple nations are defending, Poison Gas may still be used against those nations that do not have this technology (the Poison Gas die roll applies only to the nations without this technology).
5. Improved Shipyards. Your sea units are now cheaper to build and your Naval Mine Fields hit on a roll of 2 or less. When purchasing ships, use these revised costs: Unit IPC cost Battleship 10 Cruiser 8 Submarine 5 Transport 5 6. Assault Infantry Tactics (Stoßtruppen). You now can launch more vigorous offensives. When attacking, you may choose to have combat continue normally for one additional round.
DESIGN NOTES AND CLARIFICATIONS: Britain does not begin with Increased Mobilization, partly because this technology represents the historical establishment of "Kitchner's Army". Also, they lack this technology because it stresses the need for them to use troops from India to fight help with the fight in Africa at first. The intent is to stress a more historical conflict in Africa, where the Germans can be much more problematic to the British. This technology is also designed so that a nation must be well off enough to be able to afford purchasing set amounts of infantry, which makes it so that hard pressed nations are more likely to use this free infantry unit in their capitol, or they will not be able to buy enough to get the free unit. Increased Mobilization has no limit on the number of free infantry that can be obtained in a single turn, other than the practical limit of how many sets of 3 infantry a single power can be purchased in a single turn. It is intended that with Increased Mobilization you are allowed to place your "free" infantry in your currently controlled originally owned African territories, even if they are contested. This means that the enemy can contest your African colonies and, as long as they do not control the territory, you can place free units in it as reinforcements. This intentionally makes the fighting in Africa a difficult "brush war", where the goal is to completely eradicate the other side. It also bogs down the attackers and make the war in Africa last longer than just a few turns of "mopping up" before shifting all forces to Europe or the Middle East. The inspiration for this nuance in the rules comes from von Lettow-Forbeck's historical elusive and protracted campaign in German East Africa, which successfully tied down British forces for the duration of the war in that area. It also forces both sides to do something about the other in Africa, lest the balance of power of colonial forces is greatly disturbed. In our play, we found this makes the war in Africa quite challenging and interesting and realistically forces the British and French to take the time and effort to "deal with the issue". Advanced Rail Network technology represents the most advanced and developed rail networks, such as Germany's, which was arguably the most extensive and advanced in all of Europe at the start of the war. It is assumed that the normal movement of ground units already occurs by rail and this technology increases that movement. This technology is also given to the Austria-Hungary, France and Russia at start who didn't have a rail network on the same level as Germany's but still had a very capable rail network nonetheless, and were able to transport units relatively rapidly and over long distances during mobilization. There is no reason why the Russians, for example, could not move troops quickly from Moscow to Sevastopol, or Poland, especially since this happened frequently historically (two new Russian armies, the 10th and 12th, were assembled in Poland like this after the defeat at Tannenberg, as an example). Also, the caveat that allies who both have this technology can use this movement to move through each other's territories (as long as they originate in their own territory) has a historical precedent, many times during the war Germany moved troops by rail through Austro-Hungarian areas. This happened before the battle of Lodz (in von Mackensen's first failed advance towards Warsaw), then when Armeegruppe Süd was formed in the Galicia area, when the Germans formed an army (von Mackensen again) to invade Romania, and when the Germans formed an army late in the war to help with an offensive in Italy, just to name a few. Those that cannot wrap their head around this "rapid mobility" compared to Axis & Allies 1940 should instead think of it in terms of time scale, where Axis & Allies 1914 is roughly one year per turn and Axis & Allies 1940 is roughly 1/2 year per turn. Late War Infantry represents advancements in equipment (such as gas masks, steel helmets, light machine guns, trench mortars, and so on) and also represents the improved training that helped them adapt to trench warfare. Rolling Barrage is intended to be the Heavy Bombers technology of World War One. It represents the height of development of artillery, when massive and intricately planned barrages helped break the deadlock of trench warfare.
CHANGES: v9 changed cost per research die from 5 and 10 ICPs to 3 and 6 ICPs allowed multiple "6" rolls to provide more breakthrough dice, in order to provide more flexibility choosing which technology you want removed the "variants" since the above two changes make them a moot point changed Increased Mobilization technology to be a free infantry gained for every 3 infantry purchased, instead of for every 5 purchased clarified Advanced Trench Network technology to only happen if at least one defending unit survived the round of combat, this prevents cases where one infantry can be lucky and hold out/contest terrain because they keep getting "saved" by the die roll enhanced Late War Fighters technology so that fighters also move further (3 spaces instead of 2) v9a v10 clarified Rolling Barrage rule to specify that a single artillery can also support 2 tanks (not just infantry) slightly clarified the Late War Infantry rule drastically changed the Advanced Rail Network rule; instead of only being able to move up to five units, you can now move any number of grounds and air units in three groups Ed Williams 24 MAR 13